Budget Cooking

If you make homemade pizza, you most likely use pepperoni. But many times, there is a lot more pepperoni in a package than you need for your pizza. Why not add some pepperoni to your spaghetti? One package of sliced pepperoni can be expensive, but you can use that one package to spice up two or three different meals. Chop the sliced pepperoni into little pieces and add them to spaghetti sauce. It adds a tasty zing. There are other entrees you can do this with, too. Try adding it to meatloaf or throwing it into Fettuccini Alfredo.

Bean soup is a great crock pot recipe, but it is definitely an old standby. Luckily, you do not have to eat the same soup over and over. You can have bean soup one day and then throw in a few more ingredients the next for a different meal. Add a little pasta, a can of stewed tomatoes, some basil, oregano, pepper, and some finely chopped vegetables for great minestrone.

Even though the price of potatoes has gone up just like everything else, they are still fairly inexpensive when it comes to filling up hungry tummies. While it is not recommended that you serve them every night, when you change the way you cook them, you can easily get away with three potato side dishes every week.

1. Scallop them with white sauce
2. Shred them and make hashbrowns
3. Au Gratin - Slice and cook with cheese sauce
4. Homemade, oven-baked fries
5. Bake them and top them with beef chili and/or cheese for a main dish
6. Boil and mash them with crumbled bacon -- season with a little garlic

Rice can be used in tacos or burritos. Substitute for half the meat. Boil it before you add it. Rice soaks up the sauce and takes on the flavor of the recipe in which it is used. Rice can also be used to make "Porcupine Balls" for a great beef crock pot recipe. Substitute cooked rice for half of the ground beef; add an egg and some Worcestershire sauce and form the mixture into balls. Top them with pasta sauce or mushroom gravy and bake. This recipe works just as well with ground turkey or pork.

Beans and Rice: Boil the long-grain rice in water with one bouillon cube for every cup of water. Add a can of seasoned beans and stir.

Tuna, Peas and Biscuits: Bake some biscuits. Warm up one small package of frozen peas. Heat up one can of mushroom soup with half a can of milk; add one can of tuna and the peas, salt and pepper as you like and pour over the biscuits. The entire meal costs less than $4.